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As we saw in my previous chapter, when Dido and Aeneas was given at Priest’s school in 1689, it was called an opera, as Blow’s Venus and Adonis had also been when performed at Chelsea five years earlier. But the original title of masque (in English, mask) given to Blow’s...

“AN OPERA perform’d at Mr Josias Priest’s Boarding-School at Chelsey by Young Gentlewomen. The Words Made by Mr Nat. Tate. The Musick Composed by Mr. Henry Purcell.” is the title of the only libretto we have. In an epilogue written for this school performance the girls are described as “Protestants...

In my last piece, I went rapidly through who Dido was, if she existed, and what may or may not have happened in Carthage when Aeneas turned up, if he did. But in the context of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, that hardly matters. What does matter is who Purcell’s...

The Ensemble William Byrd will perform its own version of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas next April, in a concert version with gesture. Interpreting Dido is always more complicated than it appears. The only useful score dates from some 60 years after its composition, which was no doubt for the...